I Stood in Line for the Monkeypox Vaccine. All Around Me Were Echoes of Other Epidemics

From AIDS to COVID-19, Gay Men Have Found Camaraderie Amid the Barrage of Threats to Their Health

tktk | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

It is early August 2022 and I am in San Francisco for a few days. In urban areas with large gay populations such as Los Angeles, where I’m from, and here, monkeypox is on the mind of all my gay friends, and a topic of great interest among my straight ones. As with the first days of COVID-19, this consciousness seems to have come out of nowhere. Only weeks ago monkeypox seemed like a minor issue. Now there are more and more stories of friends of friends who have contracted …

by Robert Whirry | August 25, 2022

The Anticipatory Grief of Living Through a Pandemic

The Great Believers, a Novel of the AIDS Crisis, Reminds Us That ‘We Are the Memory-Keepers of This Moment’

by Anna Diamond | September 16, 2020

To be a survivor of wars, of diseases, of earth-shattering moments is to be an inheritor. You inherit the grief that comes with loss; but you also inherit the memories, …

I Had to Go to Finland to Imagine How to Fix Fresno

Fresno's Obsession with Self-Reliance Is Not Helping Its Drug Problems, but Its Volunteer Needle Exchange Is

By Kris Clarke | October 19, 2016

I grew up Fresno, but I fled as fast as I could. With its agriculturalist roots, the local political culture was narrated through the lens of rugged individualist ideals and …

What the Life of One of the First Black Tennis Superstars Can Teach Us About Playing the Long Game

Arthur Ashe’s Struggles with Segregation and AIDS Are a Model for Championing a More Just Society

By Patricia A. Turner | February 29, 2016

We tend to recognize heroes like Arthur Ashe in a kind of short-hand: first African-American man to win singles tennis titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open; …

AIDS in the New, Prosperous China

A City Crippled by an HIV Epidemic in the 1990s Tries to Keep Up with Its Nation’s Ambitions

by Hao Wu | September 25, 2014

The village where Kang lives is as far removed as one could possibly get from New York, where I now live. It is located outside of Shangcai, a small town …

Why I Want ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ to Win Best Picture

A Historian Says the Movie Captures the Emotional Exhaustion Hundreds of Thousands of Americans Experienced During the HIV/AIDS Crisis of the ’80s and ’90s

by Andrea Milne | February 26, 2014

I don’t usually bother with the Oscars, but this Sunday I’ll be on my sofa, snacks in hand, watching the 86th annual Academy Awards in real time. I’m forgoing my …

Get More Zócalo